HAPPY ARBOR DAY- Arbor Day Foundation.

How to Celebrate Arbor Day

It has been over 135 years since J. Sterling Morton founded Arbor Day. His simple idea of setting aside a special day for tree planting is now more important than ever. Discover ideas on how to celebrate Arbor Day in your community.

Download Our Celebrate Arbor Day Guidebook

Download the Guidebook

Our Celebrate Arbor Day Guidebookshows you a smorgasbord of possibilities. Pick and choose what makes sense for you. This PDF is available for free download for the first time ever (12.7 MBs).

for more info visit: http://www.arborday.org/arborday/celebrate.cfm

Weight Watchers wanted in on the Earth day fun too!

EMAIL FROM WEIGHT WATCHERS:

Get Out for Earth Day

Celebrate the earth with your own personalized sun salutation. These fun activities make the most of the great outdoors.

Article By: Mary Lynn Mitcham

April is a month of environmental celebrations. Earth Day is on the 22nd, and Arbor Day is celebrated on the 26th. So instead of just exercising outside, why not make the great outdoors part of your fitness routine?

"Environmental fitness is an exercise trend that's only going to get bigger," says Suzanne Nottingham, a spokesperson for the American Council for Exercise. The results feel as good as fresh air. Plus, you still get all the benefits of being outside.

"There's nothing like getting outside of concrete walls for stress reduction," says Nottingham. "You're not in a controlled, sterile environment, and outdoor workouts combine everything: cardio, strength-training, balance, and flexibility. Plus, 'outside' has no set hours, and no fee. You pick your own time and go."

Ready to make your workout green? Here are some easy ways to do it:

Head for the hills
See a hill when you're walking or running? Go for it. "Bumping up your workout routine improves your overall fitness level, and you'll see more results," says Nottingham.

Use rocks for weights
Do sets of bicep curls, shoulder presses, even back strengthening exercises. "Keep challenging yourself," warns Nottingham, "when exercise feels too comfortable, it's time to use bigger rocks."

Find environmental equipment
Use a park bench or a low tree branch for triceps dips. Or make a curb your substitute gym step with sets of step-ups.

Be a tree hugger 
Arbor Day is all about trees, so to celebrate, why not head to the park and find a few trees in a row? Then weave your way between them by walking, jogging or running, just like you would in an obstacle course. "A great exercise in agility, balance, and coordination," says Nottingham.

Give the car the day off
Consider walking to work. If your commute is too long, you might try biking, in-line skating, or jogging. Whatever method you choose, you can't go wrong. They're all great cardio workouts, and help reduce blood pressure, improve circulation, mobility, and, of course, burn calories.

Go green and clean
Looking for ways to take care of the environment and get active? Go to your local park and pick up litter. Incorporate a squat each time you bend down to pick up a piece of trash. At home, lunge your way back and forth from your recycling cans. Find more ways to incorporate activity throughout your day here.

For more on a host of "green" activities for Earth Day, go to www.earthday.org. 

HAPPY EARTH DAY!!!!!!!!!!- from the The Earth Day Network Team

Today is Earth Day! Over one billion people in 192 countries – from Palau to Portugal to Paraguay – are taking action today to protect the environment. In Pakistan, Earth Day Pakistan is in the process of planting 50,000 trees today. In the Cayman Islands, 1,500 people are participating in a beach and reef clean-up. In Columbus, Ohio, volunteers are pulling invasive plants, cleaning up neighborhoods, and preparing gardens at over 1000 sites in the region. See what else is going on around the world for Earth Day here. It’s not too late to get involved! Attend a local Earth Day event, plant a tree, write to your elected officials, or simply commit to living more sustainably. Every little action counts. As people all around the world mobilize to protect the environment, each one represents a unique Face of Climate Change, so upload your photos and share your stories with the world. UPLOAD Together, these photos form a digital mosaic being updated in real-time and shown at thousands of Earth Day events. SEE THE DISPLAY Be sure to use the hashtag #FaceOfClimate to update the world about your Earth Day events. Your tweets will be featured alongside the photos. Today is a monumental day. Together, our efforts will serve as a call to action, sending a powerful message to the world. Happy Earth Day!                     -  The Earth Day Network Team

New Planets that could host life!- CNN article

Photo from CNN


On the eve(ish) of Earth Day we receive news that scientists have found other earth like planets. Now that can be something scary to some, as the unknown can always be a cause of fear, but I think we should be excited that there is likely other life and perhaps opportunity to learn how to care for our planet better! While these new planets are not likely vacation destinations (as they are soooooo incredibly far away) I still love the idea of more 'earths'!

Read below:

CNN- Scientists announced Thursday the discovery of three planets that are some of the best candidates so far for habitable worlds outside our own solar system -- and they're very far away.

NASA's Kepler satellite, which is keeping an eye on more than 150,000 stars in hopes of identifying Earth-like planets, found the trio.

Two of the planets -- Kepler-62e and Kepler-62f -- are described in a study released Thursday in the journal Science. They are part of a five-planet system in which the candidates for life are the farthest from the host star.

The host star -- the equivalent of Earth's sun -- takes the name Kepler-62, where the individual planets are designated by letters thereafter.

A third planet that's potentially habitable, but not included in the Science study, is called Kepler-69c. A study about it and its system is published in The Astrophysical Journal.

These are the smallest planets ever found in the "habitable zone," the area near a star in which a planet can theoretically hold liquid water. Kepler-69c seems less clearly in the habitable zone than the other two planets, but scientists haven't ruled it out.

"With all of these discoveries we're finding, Earth is looking less and less like a special place and more like there's Earth-like things everywhere," said Thomas Barclay, Kepler scientist at the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute in Sonoma, California.

You won't be swimming on the planets anytime soon, though. The Kepler-62 star is 1,200 light-years away; Kepler-69 is 2,700 light-years away. A light-year, the distance that light travels in a vacuum in one year, is nearly 6 trillion miles.

To read more visit: http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/18/us/planet-discovery/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

Earth Day 2013

Well its been a while since I've posted, new job, new house, wedding, but its time to start talking about earth day 2013 and I couldn't miss that! While Jaden Smith may be doing a earth day/ canopy project message to promote a new movie, that doesn't really matter because it still increases awareness of the issues and a new movie may mean some new people to join the movement.

Watch Jaden Smith's message here :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm1UtGqpyLU&feature=youtu.be
He asks that everyone plant a tree. That sounds simple. Now lets remember not an invasive species and preferably native. And to donate to help plant trees where they need them the most.
I have been participating in this campaign in my own small way for years. its easy and all it takes is a little time and sometimes money. But even if you don't have any extra cash it can be as simple as helping at a local garden or planting some acorns or even asking your neighbor if they have any spouts off their tree. (I've done this and it actually is a good conversation starter- I do it with flowers too).

I feel like this campaign is a great transition into Arbor day, another nature oriented day that comes on April 26th. For more info visit the arbor day foundation website (ps they run good sales on saplings around this time and I've had pretty good luck with them!).

For more information: http://www.earthday.org/2013/


* I also feel that i cannot post today without sending my prayers and thoughts for the people effected by the bombings in Boston yesterday. On the radio this morning, it was said that we should focus on those who ran towards the bombs to help people and that we need to remember that despite all the horror we have experienced as a nation that the good people still outnumber the bad. May people and the city recover and may those who inflicted this pain be brought to a swift justice.